i've never seen a board story worse the better would be a group of workers this was my life and john kerry wooing congress at his nomination hearing obama secretary of state pick is practically a sure win with so much on the international agenda right now from the middle east from mali this post is a powerful wad of bring you the latest on the hearings i knew there was a risk to what i was doing. but i also know that to be seeing another person through as a human rights abuses illegal is not the american way. pursued by government officials praised by whistleblowers around the world the man who leaks cia torture tactics is certainly a divisive figure but now john kiriakou is being honored by the government

accountability project ahead we'll tell you how. the u.s. might be looking to end its presence in the middle east but while the troops draw down drone strikes from in the counterterrorism tactic does your or the u.s. military this fact has yemen's human rights minister loudly criticizing the pentagon is it time to change the antiterrorism strategy poll question more. it's thursday january twenty fourth eight pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching our t.v. . i began today with news from capitol hill where secretary of state nominee john kerry faced a panel of his peers on the senate foreign relations committee where he currently is the chair take a listen to how his colleagues reacted to seeing him sitting on the other side of

the table. my sense is your confirmation will go through very very quickly i do look for your testimony. pretty cozy reception we also have some footage of kerry's response to his colleagues i've never seen a more distinguished and better looking group of over issues in my life i will not take it personally that this may be the one item in washington since you know democrats and republicans to get me out of the senate quickly. well having the senate girl nominees is more than a formality it's an opportunity to properly vet the candidate and make sure they are right for the job looks like the senate already made up their mind on this one meanwhile as john kerry is soaking up the praise we turn now to another john who served on the senate foreign relations committee john kiriakou is a cia veteran that disclosed the practice of waterboarding by the agency and called it a form of torture the obama administration has charged him with violating the espionage

act and he is now facing jail time for what he's made public basi l.-u. is among kiriakou supporters that are calling for his prison sentence to be commuted their recent letter to president obama states quote we urge you to take action in this matter mr president please do not let this injustice stand commute john kiriakou sentance. and late last night at a cafe here in d.c. kerry supporters honored him and others that they say simply speak the truth artie's just under hell was there. john kiriakou former cia agent and anti torture whistleblower may never see him self in the national portrait gallery but he was celebrated in a different kind of ceremony when state evening the portrait is the newest edition in the americans who tell the truth series by artist robert shirley one of the things that we believe in this country it's in our constitution and our legal structure is that we don't torture and that's why i paid it john

kiriakou human rights activists legal scholars and other supporters turned out for the celebration sponsored by the government accountability project one of those in attendance was bruce fein a top justice department official under reagan we should care because of what it says about us a civilized people doesn't torture anybody period no matter what the conceivable so-called benefits could be this celebration took place just before kiriakou sentencing on friday where he faces thirty months in prison kiriakou first stepped into the public light in two thousand and seven when he first spoke out about waterboarding as a result of waterboarding at least right now is unnecessary he was the first cia officer to publicly label waterboarding as torture and his a.b.c. appearance helped reveal that waterboarding was in the stablished protocol according to curia his lawyer just one radek it was this interview that triggered the cia investigation cia filed about six or seven crimes reports against him

none of which the justice department decided to prosecute but clearly they've been gunning for him for a number here and this investigation has taken a toll on curiosity wonders family heather lost her job just because she's married to me she was. really one of. intelligence community in october of last year kuria pled guilty to violating the intelligence identities protection act in exchange for the government dropping all other charges against him who is the only cia officer facing jail time for any actions surrounding the government's torture program i never tortured anybody. into prison while the tortures of the lawyers. and the people who deceived and destroyed the proof of the tapes will never sees justice in two thousand and eleven he became the six whistleblower charged with violating the espionage act by the obama administration during the first term the number of whistleblower prosecutions under

the espionage act has been unprecedented at seven more than all previous presidential administrations combined the numerous prosecutions brought under the espionage act have certainly put a chill on those willing to speak out without these leaks we wouldn't have known about the cia's interrogation methods or n.s.a.'s warrantless wiretapping and it's these very actions that are being honored here by the government accountability project in washington i'm just in underhill artsy. well as the u.s. remains committed to carrying out the covert drone war in the middle east yemen's human rights minister is now speaking out against it her him ashore said quote we're committed to fighting terrorism but we're calling for a change in the means and strategies these means and strategies can be applied on the ground without harming civilians and without leading to human rights violations this comes as the u.s. has ramped up drone strikes in yemen in recent weeks it's all part of the u.s. is shadow war against islamic militants but the drone attacks are also blamed for

killing civilians fuelling anti-american sentiment and regions where the attacks occur meanwhile the united nations has launched a major investigation into civilian drone deaths are due correspondent on a stasia churkin to join me earlier from new york with more about this investigation by the u.n. . what we have going on is a group of top notch international law specialists fair headed by the un special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism launching this investigation into the drone attacks carried out by the united states in recent years they are going to be looking into the drone strikes taking place over somalia yemen of ghana stand pakistan and the actions of israel when it comes to the occupied territories the group plans to look into from twenty to thirty specific strikes one of the areas they're going to concentrate on are the so-called double tap strikes where rescuers for example people running to save victims of a drone strike were attacked by

a follow up or people going to funerals this is been something that's been a big concern lately with dozens of people dying in those incidents so this is what they're going to look into this is something that's going to last a while they will look into the numbers of casualties the identities of casualties and really the legal liabilities that might follow and this is something that we're not really expecting any kind of legal serious accusations to come out of but one of the things they're looking into is whether or not work crime is a term that can be used a very strong term so this is something that we're going to have to find out when this report finally reveals in the months to come and what prompted this investigation. well that's what prompted this investigation is of course growing concerns that the increased attacks end up killing civilians and children on the ground this is something that's been a big concern for years this is something that's causing huge anti-american sentiment in places like yemen specifically where recently in the latest drone strike two children were killed and we saw

a group of countries russia china and pakistan addressed the u.n. human rights council and saying look we need to investigate this further so this investigation is now being launched and it's also you know the numbers really speaking for themselves one hundred seventy eight children died just in yemen in recent years eight hundred ninety one civilians since the year two thousand and four just in pakistan so this is something that needs to be addressed and the goal of this particular investigation is exactly that all right so at the conclusion of this investigation what will the result be what with the next steps below will it be in the form of a resolution. well this will take not a form of resolution but rather a report presented by these international law specialists and the key here is that you know unfortunately the reality is that every once in a while the u. one puts together a group of investigators to follow up on these really burning issues but sadly it's very rare that these kinds of investigations end up anywhere else but the desk

drawers of you know u.n. employees and in this particular case when it comes to the united states and its allies we've seen often time over and over again that these kinds of investigations don't really have any serious consequences in this particular case the group says they will present the material to the united nations general assembly but we have to keep in mind that the body has absolutely no binding power they say if the findings are strong enough they might take the results of the investigation further this might mean the united nations security council the only body of the one that has any kind of binding legal power but there the united states has veto power so you know it's definitely not something that's likely to cause major change in u.s. policy liz ok so it's kind of up in the air or it seems like you're pretty skeptical that it could actually change the way that the the drone war has been carried has been carried out in places like yemen and pakistan. that's right because you know it's just been it's a very simple forecast because we can look at the previous examples of these kinds

of reports they do cause some kind of a stir they are talked about even though there are sometimes very headline making information revealed but unfortunately we're not probably going to hear much about this from u.s. officials that have been completely hush hush about the whole drone war operations that they're conducting in this case they have promised to kind of cooperate they have to cooperate because they're legally binded to do so but my forecast is yes unfortunately very where very unlikely to see any tangible results and change in u.s. policy come out of this you know hopefully i'm wrong but previous examples have showed but to be the case i guess we're going to have to wait and see appreciate you staying on top of this story anastasio that was our correspondent on a saucy turned into much of the tragic shooting in newtown connecticut across the country people are trying to find ways to make communities safer and new york city police hope to catch a legal gun carriers with full body scanners the device is called terahertz imaging

tech detection it works by scanning a targeted person head to toe and can detect when someone is carrying a gun well as the scanners do its job those targeted have no idea they're being scanned so is this a new way to keep our streets safer or is this an invasion of privacy to discuss this further i was joined by danny pandal of truth squad t.v. and i first asked him to tell us more about this new technology and how it will be used. well that's still up in the air the n.y.p.d. says they're studying it how exactly they can implement it early reports were that they were going to be mounting these scanners in trucks or the back of police cars and as they patrol the streets they'd be scanning the passenger pedestrians rather . walking up and down the york city streets and if they see something that resembles a gun then that they would use that is they're just they're just there reasonable suspicion to perform

a search so ray kelly the police commissioner is saying this is going to actually reduce stop and frisks because they only have to stop and frisk people that they actually see have weapons. who have who fight and why p.d. injustices know that this will be used as an excuse to stop and search anybody because now anything can look like a weapon anything can look like drug paraphernalia if i'm carrying a pen are they going to say it's a syringe or a knife and now that now they have a legal justification that covers them to perform a stop that really would be eagle otherwise so this technology doesn't sound like this technology is very accurate where whatever it attacks they know in fact that it is a dime. well obviously the closer the subject is to the to the technology the probably the more accurate of a visual they will get but no i mean if you're scanning as you're driving up and down the streets you know people are moving it's going to be very difficult to to

really accurately i mean obviously the shape of a gun is going to be more obvious then you know but they're not only looking for guns gun confiscations as a result of scott stop and frisk is like a point zero one percent so the majority of stop and frisks basically yield drug paraphernalia you know things of that nature small weapons like like knobs that are maybe a little bit too long to fall within the law that type of stuff so you know to say that this is going to stop guns is really disingenuous but there is just the issue of. invasion of privacy there's no warrants involved people don't even know they're being virtually searched with this technology so that's a big issue and it's you know this whole that they are supposed to have. permission i guess when people would police stop you and conduct these searches and there's supposed to be some form of evidence but i guess in this case it kind of gives them

a free pass is that what you're saying that's right the scanner itself can as the evidence so all they need to say is well it looked like a gun on the scanner or it looked like a knife on the scanner that gave us a justification to stop this person and then we found nothing you know so they can blame it on the technology it becomes a scapegoat. that was danny pans l.-a from truth squad t.v. . a big investigative reporter can be a tough job that job just got more difficult for one journalist who says she was denied insurance coverage because of her work a portland oregon based independent journalist by the name of the levy vanderveer to say farm denied her property insurance coverage she says the reason she was declined is due to her occupation reached out to say it farm for a comment and they have yet to respond with a statement earlier today i was joined by independent journalist lee vander valle and i asked her to explain her experience with state farm so the us.

sure well i actually was approved for coverage with state for. a general liability policy so that i can rid the office that i'm in today. it's basic property insurance and i paid for my policy it was issued to me i have an insurance binder from my landlord and they called me a couple days ago and told me that. they were dumping me because an underwriter who looked at my website felt that the type of writing that i do is too controversial for them to insure. apparently there is a property in materials coverage in the insurance that i have that makes it risky we're going to hear me did they go into what exactly what is the risk that you pose. well they said that if i were to be sued for slander libel or defamation they don't see how they could separate themselves in this day would have

to defend me because my journalism my writing is the product of my business i want to bring up some examples of of the stories that you've reported on i have a couple of other headlines we've pulled here one of them a prostitution of children in seattle mushrooms while portland's reputation suffers colleges in denial about campus sexual assault problem advocates say seeds of dissent and cruise lines dodge states tougher rules by dumping in canadian waters so can you elaborate more on exactly the type of work that you do the kind of stories that you investigate. sure i do mostly social justice journalism sometimes focused on the environment sometimes criminal justice issues. and i work with a handful of different employers i'm i'm not really sure patterson foundation fellow currently my work's been supported by the fun for investigative journalism

on for environmental journalism and we're pretty regularly as a contributor for investigate west nonprofit journalism students and i generally do long term projects looking at social issues with the fine print on things that we. might not otherwise look at where do cruise ships leave their waste when they're traveling between alaska so you know sometimes the work is it's awful it's probing and ask questions it is however like a lot of the muckrake so over by a lawyers in a big way work is different so i was told by state farm that if i were writing food reviews or pieces about bridal gowns that i would be insurable it's just not this type of controversial journalism which to me a little bit. i'm not sure that opinion is any less risky than this material it is it is right i mean i guess they don't really like the hard hitting stuff that

you're covering there did they define what exactly caused commercial journalism is a lot constitutes a concept a controversial piece i'm not sure i get no evidence of by virtue of our work that's what we do we cover i have a controversial right right that are stirring up the debate. well what are you going to do now. well i was given an initially very short deadline twenty four hours to voluntarily withdraw the policy since they've been extended a couple days so i have until tomorrow to voluntarily be state farm or i am going to be cancel which is the thing that i really don't want to have to report to one insurer to the next i don't see how that would be good for my business so i'm hustling for really to meet the deadline and i think that i have found the policy that's going to work for me i'm just talking a little bit later today with

a broker from c b i c and hopefully going to move forward with new coverage in the next couple days right the affair that if you don't get the coverage from state farm that you'll have a difficult time finding it elsewhere. i i think that i can find a policy i may be looking at a higher price point but i i think i can find insurance for sure i'm a little bit concerned about having a lapse in the policies as miley my contract with my ram works so i'm working pretty quickly but i want to ask you kind of your reaction when when state farm tells you that they're not going to cover you because of your job that they find your your journalism controversial what was your reaction at that point and gain the thing that your job. could pose more of a risk to the insurance company i think my job probably does pose some risks to the insurance companies for sure i think that's why we have lawyers look at most of what i'm producing. my reaction though was stunning i just

i was pretty floored i've never had anybody say that they won't take my money because when i do. and i i told my agent i mean this is a company that i've worked with for twelve years my property on my cars have been insured through state farm and earthquake insurance. i just. i think this is kind of a backhanded way to treat a loyal and reliable customer i think that they could have told me that in terms of product for me or given me a little more time but they entered into a contract with me and sort of it's rude but beyond that i'm wondering where the social conscience of the company is i understand that my work may be risky however i just don't think everybody in business should be willing to take some risk we knew of their corporate responsibility right. and by of course you do take some risks but a lot of occupations do involve us some risk in one way or another do you fear that

that this cut that the response that you got from state farm could deter people like you that want to pursue investigative. investigative journalism from from going into it and putting themselves up pursuing this career i guess i do i think in the first place if you're an independent journalist you're not really working with the kind of legal shield that a lot of mainstream journalists are working with and i think it's very very important to the industry that more people do choose independent journalism you know the industry is in trouble it's not a secret that investigative journalism is very different from these days and i think calving independent out there who can innovate quicker in test new products is very very important. so that's my main concern is if we don't have people like me who are invading the model and finding places where investigative does make money then the whole industry really is suffering interesting we really appreciate

you coming on the show and telling us your story that was independent journalist lee vander view thank you. a canadian college student has been expelled for exposing security flaws in the school's computer system computer science student hum bad boss found a vulnerability while working on a mobile app that allows students to access their college accounts on their phones this is according to wired public laws what have enabled students to access sensitive information like addresses class schedules and social insurance numbers those numbers are similar to social security numbers in the u.s. and he wanted to bring this to the attention of dawson college in monterey but the president of the software company called what i'll call data form of a cyber attack and charlie there after the college expelled him for his conduct for

more i was joined the earlier by michael gregg c.e.o. of superior superior solutions and i asked him if this really can be considered a cyber attack well jeff weakly this type of activity isn't really call the cyber attacks but there's really two pieces of the story one day he found the problem in the code the second one was that he used a scanning product to actually scan to see if the problem had been fixed once he scanned their network that typically sets off warms and sets of triggers because it's using the times to test a network for putin should louie the prequel to an attack ok so you know the protocols are there a sense that there was something going on there but the fact that he's expelled and there's all these repercussions i mean how can it be considered an attack if he never intended to harm anyone or steal any information. that's kind of tough but

it would be the big thing i would say we do security assessments we do pin testing and generally the protocol is you never scan a network you never run a port scan you never run any type of tool against a network until you've been given written permission so that's generally the protocol ok so regardless of what his intentions did what he ended up doing is considered. is considered harmful no matter how you cut it not so much form you start would describe it as bad or because informing them that there was a problem i see nothing wrong with that that's a really helpful role but once he crossed the line and actually scary and i think you really crossed the line at that point forced your network yeah i do and i do understand the protocol but it's i guess it's hard for me to wrap my head around why the school would then expel him as he's trying to expose these flaws in their system seems to me like something there doesn't that doesn't add up. you know that

you actually are your job is is to do this is is to hack into networks into computers in an effort to expose vulnerability is so it's sounds like that this is kind of a sought after service. it is it is very much so and i guess the one thing i would say about this is. i think maybe they went a little too far in expelling him but i mean i don't know all the facts but what i would actually wonder is many times what happens is is that something can kill the messenger meaning that after you actually exposed sometimes people don't like being told that there's a problem they don't like finding out potentially that something to be exploited and at that point maybe they just wanted it all to go away well i mean on the flip side i guess what could have happened is if he didn't expose a flaw that somebody with bad intentions that didn't want to steal information.

would have done so and then the school would have would have found out the hard way sure and i agree with you on that i think after he discovered the flaw and he reported it before he ever actually scanned their network you should have at least said hey can i scan your network do you mind if i scan your network of you fix the problem going to make this public and such and such day i'm going to tell the press i'm going to do some type of responsible process of letting others know that this could be a problem right. so now this college dawson college over there in monterey well the latest that i've heard is that they're not going to take him back but it seems like he's getting a lot of job offers after that this. very software company where. i guess hacked is now how offering him a job this is according to the national post so when you say that good hackers are

in demand these days. my definitely good actors are always in demand and that's good because i was going to say most definitely i would think probably has a good skill set there that's needed just look at the news on any one particular day and you'll see news of security breaches a medical records being exposed to other types of data being potentially there hacked on the news so good set of skill i would wonder though with the quantity that actually came back in offering the job if they were doing that simply to offer him a job or they're trying to make the best of the situation now that they've gotten kicked out of school right right yeah. so we see this case he he is facing the consequences he got expelled from college and this is coming after this tragic case aaron swartz the renowned internet internet activist who is facing a good amount of jail time for for what he's accused of hacking into

a computer database and trying to distribute that information to people saying that in that case that was prosecutorial overage so we're seeing a lot of. harsh penalties for for these kinds of computer computer crimes so do you think that maybe it's time that the laws that they need to be strengthened to determine you know what exactly is it is a cyber attack and what the appropriate penalties are most definitely i think the really tough part is if you look back in the one nine hundred ninety s. and you look back maybe ten years or so so many times that penalties were not very at the time and with anything there always tends to be with last year kind of a backlash over time and i think that's what you're seeing here is because there's been so many reports in the news that even simply doing a port scan or maybe simply starting to talk about some.